[CREATE] Gradients, Swatches, Hatches and OpenDocument

[Jon Phillips]

On Tue, 2005-09-13 at 17:29 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument are notably absent from the current
> resource specification.  Both OpenOffice.org Impress and Draw use the same
> shared config/resource files showing a very high level of integration I'm
> hoping KOffice will reach as it standardises on OpenDocument and has the
> potential to standardize more of its infrastructure.
> 
> The OpenDocument standard is in a strong position.  I am concerned how it
> seems like they have reinvented SVG in many cases.  On the other hand SVG
> has failed to provide all that was needed (for example SVG only specifies
> two gradient types) and they couldn't wait.  Nevertheless it may be the
> best basis for any kind of standard wish want to try and set.

They have though provided the svg namespace on items that the svg spec
specifies and then they extend it with their own for extensions. The
idea is that as the svg spec matures and more features are added,
OpenDocument will support svg.

> They are very much required to deal with the kinds of internationalisation
> issues we need to address and if we can use their standards or something
> very close to it then we could potentially benefit from their tools and
> their userbase too.
> 
> For your convenience I've dropped some files on my web pages
> http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/create/
> 
> Sample OpenOffice/StarOffice XML Gradients (.sog)
> http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/create/staroffice-gradients/
> standard location for these files seems to be
> /usr/local/OpenOffice.org1.0/user/config/classic.sog
> 
> Various OpenOffice resources, Gradients, Hatches, Swatches etc
> http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/create/openoffice-resources_config/
> 
> They resources use the openoffice draw markup, and as you can see it
> is a table full of gradients and very closely resembles SVG the only
> significant differene being the support for more gradient types
> http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/create/openoffice-resources_config/classic.sog
> 
> I dont know if you are familiar with the kind of SVG older versions of
> OpenOffice exported but rather than the more common Hexidecimal RGB format
> they made use of RGB triplets of the form:
> color="rgb(256,256,256)"
> Presumably something equivalent could be done for other colourspaces such
> as CMYK, LAB, HSV and I have a sneaking suspicion Scribus may already have
> done something along these lines and this problem might be a lot simpler
> than we would have guessed.
> 
> Initially I was looking only at the OpenOffice gradients but their colour
> lists might be a suitable format for swatch files, and their hatch lists
> are essentially their equivalent to SVG patterns.
> 
> If we are determined to figure out what standards will be needed for the
> future I think we need to start gathering specifications and checking to
> see if OpenDocument meets our requirements or what it would take to get
> them to do so (and possibly also find places where it would be simpler to
> use SVG directly than their reinvention of it).  I have a strong suspicion
> we will find a lot of what we need in OpenDocument as the likes of Corel
> (who have since turned into quite a different) Corporation and Adobe were
> involved.  Also the use of OpenDocument for resources is far less
> intrusive than asking any applications to switch to the OpenDocument
> format.
> 
> Hope this all makes sense.  Rather than sit on these thoughts and redraft
> them into something more coherent later I think it is better to start the
> discussion.  I am also hoping we can get people know more about
> OpenDocument involved soon.

If you know these devs, please email and ask them to join this
community.

> It seems obvious in hindsight, I'm surprised we haven't dicussed it before
> but the format OpenOffice uses for its resources has a lot of potential
> and is probably also part of OpenDocument and on its way to becoming an
> ISO standarda and is probably already very interested in meeting the
> requirments we have.

Could you take a stab at adding some of these resources you mention to
the wiki for create? http://create.freedesktop.org/wiki/

Jon

-- 
Jon Phillips

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